Galion Middle School evacuated after threat found on bathroom wall

The Galion City School District received a bomb threat mid-morning Tuesday at the Galion Middle School. Students from the middle school were evacuated to the high school while authorities searched for threats.(Photo11: Jason J. Molyet/News Journal)Buy Photo

GALION - Galion Middle School students were immediately evacuated Tuesday morning after the Galion City School District learned of a possible bomb threat written on a restroom wall.

The threat was discovered at around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Students were taken to the nearby high school.

And after an extensive search, school and safety officials were confident the building was safe and secure and students returned to the middle school around 1 p.m.

Almost five hours after the threat was discovered, Galion Police Chief Brian Saterfield and Galion Superintendent Jim Grubbs said no bomb was found. Officials have a list of students' names who went in and out of the restroom on Tuesday morning, based on video cameras, officials said.

Officials declined to release what the threat said, but said during the 2:15 p.m. conference call with media that it included the word "bomb."

Grubbs said the custodial maintenance staff does a great job of inspecting restrooms and regularly removes graffiti from restroom walls. "We truly believe this was written this morning," Grubbs said.

A student reported the restroom wall threat to administration, Grubbs said. Police and school personnel have not yet had an opportunity to talk to students and are still investigating.

Roughly about 430 middle school students were evacuated.

The building was deemed safe around noon after a total of about 20 people, including Galion police officers, Galion firefighters, Crawford County Sheriff's Office and school faculty searched the building, which is located on a campus with Galion High School, Grubbs said.

No bomb-sniffing dogs or bomb squads were brought to the Galion Middle School.

Grubbs said staff and first responders are to be thanked.

"Within minutes we had several folks from the Galion Police Department, the Galion Fire Department along with the Crawford County Sheriff's Department and most of our administrative staff in some way, especially our central office staff and our custodial maintenance staff," Grubbs said. "Everybody reacted in a very swift and responsive way to make sure that everyone was safe and we basically went through the building with a fine-tooth comb, making sure we did our best to make sure everyone was safe here."

He said students are not told there is a bomb threat when they are being asked to leave the building to avoid a panic situation. He said the students did a great job getting to the high school with staff and behaved very well.

Officials declined to speculate on what the person who left the threat could be charged with, saying that would be decided by juvenile prosecutors.

"If we find out who it is, we will deal with them," Saterfield said.

Grubbs said the district received a lot of phone calls from concerned parents. The district communicated with parents through a district call system.

Grubbs encouraged parents to talk to their kids about the severity of a bomb threat.

"It does not just impact the middle school. It impacts everybody and I think our families and parents need to communicate that tonight, but I also believe the school needs to do that and we will do that and have the same conversations with our students," he said.